Ops question: Passenger Trains and pitstops


DakotaLove39

DakotaLove39

Always Improvising
Just a question of curiosity..

I'm aware of the mass amount of shoving around that freight cars go through, but is it typical to have to break down and reassemble passenger trains on a layout?

If so, how often is this usually done, and where?

Secondly, do crews on a layout ever have to make stops for "fuel" inbetween their runs?
 
I'm not sure how to answer you. Not criticizing, just saying I don't really understand what you are asking. I'll try anyway...

First, it's your railroad if you are not modelling prototypes. So, you can do as you please. In real life, passenger consists were made up and split, or parcelled out as the need arose. Two cars from a train between St. Louis and Chicago would be set out for a train running west, once the train reached Chicago, and sent to their destination west of Chicago. When making up the train in St. Louis, they'd go through their servicability roster of needed and available cars, including those that had to be returned to their parent railroad, and marshall them on a side track. Dining cars, especially, were set in and out for cleaning and provisioning at a dock, and then placed into service later that day or evening. You could do that.

As for crews, they carried their meals in lunch boxes and ate on the fly. Peeing was done over the side, just like when fishing. In the event of a need to evacuate one's bowels, that was most comfortably held until the next substantial station stop, and done in a mad dash. If one was held up, and late as a result, the engineers had no qualms about upping their between-stop speeds for the next two or three legs to make up time. A story in Trains magazine in the early 90's tells of a dusty PRR Duplex that was pressed into service at the last minute. It got behind, and during a 40 mile leg the engineer had the beast well up over 125 mph, making up nine minutes.

Otherwise, it, too was over the side, or done in a honey bucket behind a privacy curtain. Depending on local custom.

Edit - I just re-read your question...do you mean during Ops Sessions? If so, I am sorry for what I replied above...won't be of much help to you.

-Crandell
 
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The second part was asking if crews on a layout ever have stops for locomotive diesel fuel or coal and water. Sorry if I asked it weird..
 
Steam engines need water and coal/oil/wood so they would stop quite often. In an Ops session this would be a water tower along the line etc.
Diesels need fuel and water (at times) and would do this at crew changes, stations, or right on the main line from a fuel truck.

As for passenger trains, on my layout when the Amtrak comes into the station it gets split in two. One part heads for the lower staging and the other heads up the helix as a local. Also at times an additional car is added from the house track depending on passenger traffic.

Just remembered, VIA Rail splits in two at Jasper AB and goes West / North and reassembles in Jasper for the Eastward trip.
 
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Passenger trains are usually made up in passenger car yards at the originating terminal. Unless the train has cars to be cut out for a specific purpose, like a sleeper being added to another train or cars from a connecting train being added to the consist, the train remains intact until it gets to the final terminal. The train will get serviced, broken up and then reassembled into another train for the return run. Again, this is usually done in dedicated passenger car yards. Cars added to or cut out of a consist along the way may be done on a siding that's specially used for passenger train meets, with either the train power or a switcher moving the cars around and reassembling the train.

I assume you mean do passenger trains have to make fuel stop while en route. In the days of steam, this was very common as the engines needed to take on fuel and water about every 200 miles. With the arrival of diesels, servicing stops were actually more frequent for the passenger cars, since they needed water for the toilet and domestic uses of the passengers and lots of ice before the days of air conditioning. A four unit F consist would be able to travel between 600 to 800 miles before it needed to stop for refueling and have more water for the steam boilers added.

Modern trains don't need steam boilers since all heating and air conditioning is handled by electricity for a head end power unit. Most Amtrak engines have fuel tanks at least twice as large as F units and water tanks for use in the passenger cars that are in the space that would previously have been occupied by boilers. Most long distance trains can now go 1,000 miles before they have to layover for a bit for refueling and fixing minor problems with the cars and motive power. For example, the California Zephyr runs all the way from Emeryville to Salt Lake, about 950 miles, before it has to stop for fuel and water.
 
Has anyone built their own dedicated passenger yard?

I suppose one would only be worthwhile if you're modeling a certain area (Such as the NE Corridor or something), or have a heavy emphasis on passenger trains.
 
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I am sure some folks with tons of room have built dedicated passenger facilities and yards. I am not one of them, so I just have a siding with a depot at Seneca Falls Sub.

As Jim stated, all steamers have to stop periodically for oil or coal, and also for water. Note that in some cases, both in Europe and here in N. America, some railroads used what are called track pans for water replenishment on the fly. A scoop under the tender would be lowered as the tender crossed a threshhold, and water would be forced into the tender, and eventually out through ports at the top rear of the tender when the tender was full. The New York Central, for example, had such track pans. With very large tenders of the centipede style, that carried mostly coal or oil, the smaller water compartment needed to be filled more often...and that was done on the fly at track speed, or thereabouts. Meant fewer stops.
 
Switching passenger cars

I do know about this subject. I switched thousands of passenger cars and hated every minute of it. Brewster yard had about 10 or 12 10 cars or more passenger trains leave for New York City every morning. These trains had to be made up at night. First you had to switch out all the cars due for inspection. After that was done you switched out all the cripples and put them on the repair pads. Then you took the cars that were inspected and fixed the night before and inserted them into their trains. If trains were short because of crippled cars then you took cars from other trains to even things out. It took all night every night to do all this. It’s not like switching freight, you had to go slow. Most all the trains had bar cars that couldn’t be jostled around. Switching out 140 passenger cars every night for me was as boring as it gets. If I asked any questions about what we were doing or when we are getting done they would reply just follow the light, just follow the light.

NYC_George
 
well, personally, I find the whole thing fascinating.

this will be a whole 'nuther education. :D :D

or I could tell you about the time I was up a telephone pole at work, in rain gear, and two construction guys were in someones backyard....
 
One of my railroading friends is crazy about passenger train operation, and he'd love to tell you about how railroads used to put dining cars into trains, and take them out again for service, and how sleepers would be dropped off and picked up and moved from one train to another, all while passengers slept in them (if they were able to). It was done to provide a comfortable trip for the customers, so as to keep making money...all far in the past now.
 
Yard air and steam

One thing I forgot. All the cars were on yard air and in winter yard steam. This happened at a place called the riser. The air kept the cars from rolling away without appling all the hand brakes and made it easier to pump up the train air in the morning. The steam was applied in winter to keep the cars from freezing up. Before you moved anything the steam had to be disconnected at the riser and then later reconnected which also slowed everything down.

NYC_George
 
Well maybe I spoke too soon. In model operation, switching passenger trains wouldn't be too much different from freight, aside from speed restriction to keep to prototype. An operator might actually find a change of scenery interesting after he/she has been running freight drags all day..
 
I started out thinking that I would have a separate passenger car yard, but it didn't take long to realize the large space could better be used for other things...I have a garage size layout, but rather have the space for more diversified freight switching.

You can still have a small amount of switching by dropping/picking up REA, Diner, Pullmans, and Postal cars. I have have a few sidings at the stations for this and make up my own events. If you try to go prototypical, you are looking at a very large area.;)

I don't worry about maintenance for the cars, but send the engines to the diesel or steam maintenance shops at the end of schedules and refueling is at different times/points of the route during the schedule. ;)
 
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